Opening things up

The shed is no more. And the area behind it has been opened up, cleared of brush and trees. Over the past forty-two years, the forest has grown up and was crowding the house, which was beautiful in its own way, but was creating a problem of continual moisture - the house couldn't breathe, it never dried out. We now get the benefit of the morning sun, and it makes quite a difference. Zac, our neighbor who did the work, also carved out a swale which will direct the water running off the hillside and, we think, solve a long-standing drainage problem which created sort of a bog in the spring. It has also opened up a view of a cluster of granite boulders which were hidden by the trees. It is a shocking transformation, and there is still a great deal to do in terms of cleaning up brush, bucking up logs (we'll get a lot of cord wood out of it, and quite a bit for John and Cynthia too), seeding, etc.

Here is the way it looked before:

Here it is now:

The shed used to be in the middle of this photo. 

We 're hoping the ferns will eventually fill all this in - they've done a great job up to now. 

                     The swale